How to Kickstart Citizen Science in your Library? Report from the Masterclass for Library Executives

The LIBER Citizen Science Working Group and the European Citizen Science Academy held a 1.5-day pilot masterclass on citizen science for library executives on 7-8 May 2024 in Paris. The event was kindly hosted by the Learning Planet Institute.

The organisers were Muki Haklay & Cléa Montanari (ECS Academy) and Anne Kathrine Overgaard & Thomas Kaarsted (LIBER Citizen Science Working Group).

22 participants from 11 countries attended with a majority of library executives but also included open science managers and policymakers.

The learning outcomes were to kickstart citizen science in a research library, develop a plan, understand the process of supporting citizen science, and understand the context, reasons, and benefits. Important subgoals were to increase participants’ networks, identify external and internal stakeholders, and facilitate citizen science integration.

The masterclass showed that the majority of participants had ideas to get started and that citizen science very much appears to be both an institutional and personal journey for library executives. This exposes the no ‘one size fits all’ context for citizen science at research libraries that were the basis for the masterclass. It also highlights that challenges in both strategic and day-to-day operations would benefit from being addressed.

Two days in Paris at the Learning Planet Institute.

The masterclass revealed the huge potential for onboarding research libraries to citizen science. In many ways, the event addressed the gap identified within Citizen-Enhanced Open Science in libraries (Kaarsted et al. 2023) by addressing barriers, strategy, commitment (or lack of), competencies (most already existing), partnerships, and change management, but there are more steps to be taken.

In order to develop citizen science in research libraries, organisers work on having a continuation of the masterclass, including more case studies, work with overcoming barriers, having more hands-on guides in a dialogue with library executives, colleagues from Open Science units, university research support units and other partners with a strong focus on the journey from engagement to impact. This masterclass would be a whole two-day masterclass to be held on a yearly basis to cover Citizen-Enhanced Open Science at research libraries to move further.

Members of the LIBER Citizen Science Working Group will participate in a follow-up event titled ‘Developing Citizen Science in Research Libraries’ to be held in Budapest in March 2025. More on that will follow during autumn 2024.

The basis and expected demand for a yearly masterclass for library executives on citizen science seems present. Accordingly, a collaboration with strong research partners within the citizen science community would not only benefit participants and connect them to new partners but also brand LIBER within citizen-enhanced open science in a partnership with the ECS Academy.

The organisers will hold an online follow-up event in autumn 2024 with the participants of the pilot masterclass to address follow-up questions, plans, strategies, and share stories.